Chapter 525: We Make a Deal

He wielded his halberd and charged menacingly towards Pei Mianman. Zu An, standing nearby, nervously shouted a warning, "Watch out!" He had just taken a hit, and his energy was still in turmoil, not yet recovered. At that moment, he had no strength left to help.

Pei Mianman remained unhurried. With a sway of her waist, her entire body bent backward as flexibly as a willow branch, narrowly avoiding the opponent's fierce attack. Her posture was so graceful, it seemed less like a life-or-death situation and more like she was performing a beautiful dance.

Zu An, however, broke out in a cold sweat for her. He had no doubt about Pei Mianman's flexibility; his only concern was that she might have miscalculated the amplitude of her ample bosom. If, while leaning back, other parts of her body avoided the swinging halberd but her chest was hit, it would be a problem. Fortunately, she seemed to have anticipated this; her entire body sank extremely low, allowing the halberd to narrowly miss her chest by half an inch.

Zu An breathed a sigh of relief, realizing it was her own body. After years of various battles, she must know her body's strengths and weaknesses better than anyone else; there was no need for him to worry needlessly.

However, his heart immediately tensed up again. General Yachang's strike missed, and he smoothly pulled the halberd back. At that moment, Pei Mianman was leaning so far back she was almost on all fours, with no way to evade. He was about to rush over to help when he saw Pei Mianman lightly touch the halberd with her hand. As if using it for leverage, she pivoted on her toes, her entire body seemingly transforming into a flexible willow branch, dancing gracefully around the halberd. No matter how General Yachang swung his halberd, he could not injure her. Instead, she used the principle of 'softness overcomes hardness,' preventing the halberd's powerful attacks from being effective.

"Feather Robe Silk Entanglement Hand!" Zu An immediately recognized her movement technique. She had once taught him this grappling technique for close combat, but he had never imagined it could be used in such a way.

Only then did Zu An remember that Pei Mianman was not a fragile woman who needed constant protection. On the contrary, she was a rare cultivation genius among the younger generation. Previously, upon first arriving in the secret realm, some mysterious connection to it had made her somewhat distracted. Combined with repeated scares from snakes, ghosts, and the like, she had only been able to unleash about half of her abilities, which was why she frequently encountered danger and needed him to rescue her multiple times.

He wasn't sure if it was due to her getting accustomed to their journey, or if it was because they had just passed through the barrier and entered this royal mausoleum burial ground. Either way, she had now regained her usual captivating yet dangerous 'femme fatale' style. Facing an opponent clearly much stronger than herself, she was not at a disadvantage.

Zu An did not waste time marveling. He took advantage of Pei Mianman entangling General Yachang's halberd, swinging his Tai'a Sword directly towards the General's head.

At this point, the bull statue clearly wasn't having it. It bellowed and rushed out again to protect its master. Zu An was prepared. He took out a pair of large red underwear from the Glazed Pearl and dangled it in front of the bull. Since acquiring the Glazed Pearl as a storage space, Zu An had been stuffing all sorts of things into it, including rare treasures and various daily necessities. As for the large red underwear, it wasn't due to a peculiar taste or because it was his zodiac year. In fact, he had prepared underwear of various colors: red, orange, yellow, blue, purple... wait, no green.

The bull saw the large red color, and its eyes, as large as brass bells, instantly turned red. Then it charged madly towards the red underwear. Zu An took the opportunity to toss the red underwear in his hand onto the nearby wall. The bull, utterly unconcerned, followed and crashed into it. With a loud crash, the bull directly hit the wall, and large chunks of earth were shaken loose. It's important to note that the earth in these tomb walls was not ordinary soil; it had been compacted layer by layer with heavy hammers and reinforced with glutinous rice juice, tung oil, and other materials, making it so hard that ordinary swords could barely damage it. Yet, despite this, the bull still managed to collapse a portion of it, which speaks volumes about the immense force of its impact.

Of course, the bull didn't come out unscathed either. The impact left it dizzy and disoriented, its two horns deeply embedded in the earth and impossible to pull out. It seemed it wouldn't be able to rejoin the battle anytime soon.

Zu An's heart swelled with joy. Just as he thought he was about to stab General Yachang's head, a bronze hand suddenly appeared in front of him, directly blocking his sure-fire strike. With a crisp clang, Zu An felt a tremendous force transmit from the sword blade. He barely managed to keep the sword from flying out of his hand when the bronze hand suddenly shot towards him. In a hurry, Zu An quickly blocked with his long sword in front of his chest. Even so, he didn't fully block it and was slapped on the chest. If not for his formidable physical body, he would have nearly passed out.

At this moment, Pei Mianman also could no longer control the opponent's halberd and was directly flung to the other side. Both of them were panting heavily. Clearly, in that quick exchange, they had both expended a great deal of energy.

"Empress sister, if you don't help now, I'll really die." Zu An felt a surge of powerlessness. The general's strength was far beyond what he could handle; in the face of such an absolute power gap, no amount of skill mattered. After a brief exchange, he realized that General Yachang's strength was at least Ninth Grade, perhaps even close to a Grandmaster, though his own power gap was too large to discern properly.

Fortunately, this time Mieli didn't pretend to be dead. She replied indifferently, "Don't you have a way to deal with him? Why ask me?"

Zu An was startled: "What way do I have?"

Mieli said, "Doesn't the second layer of the Primordial Chaos Scripture have demon-warding properties? It's inherently the bane of these undead creatures. Didn't you use it to purify those 200,000 undead when you encountered me last time?"

Zu An was speechless.

Noticing his expression, Mieli's face looked somewhat strange. "You didn't forget, did you?"

With her reminder, Zu An finally remembered, and couldn't help but say with a long face, "I really did forget about that." So, sometimes knowing too many things isn't necessarily a good thing; it's easy to forget skills. If he had known this earlier, his encounter with those evil spirits on the high platform wouldn't have been so perilous; he could have just swept through them, taking them out one by one. However, those were Jiang Jiang's clansmen. If she knew that the undead spirits of her clansmen had been annihilated by him again, she probably wouldn't be as easygoing as before. He also wondered if the Primordial Chaos Scripture could deal with Guman Thong... Overall, it had been a series of unintended consequences that somehow worked out.

Even as he consoled himself, Zu An was still quite depressed. "Why didn't you remind me earlier?"

A hint of a smile played on Mieli's lips. "I saw you always circulating the Primordial Qi of the Phoenix Nirvana Scripture. I thought you were intentionally training yourself between life and death, and incidentally, deliberately creating some thrilling moments to win the heart of that big-chested girl. Anyway, the whole process was merely frightening but not truly dangerous, so naturally, I didn't stop you."

Zu An was speechless.

"Am I such a shameless person? If I want to win a woman's heart, I'd rely on my own charm!"

"Zu An, watch out!" At this moment, Pei Mianman's warning reached his ears. General Yachang was swinging his halberd and charging towards him, clearly quite displeased with this fellow who had trapped his beloved bull and almost gotten the better of him several times.

Zu An hastily activated the Primordial Chaos Scripture, imbuing his Tai'a Sword with Primordial Qi. At the same time, he mumbled to himself, "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, this is not my home, you shouldn't..."

Before he could finish, General Yachang hurriedly stopped, extending a hand and saying, "Stop, we can make a deal!" Although his voice was hoarse and indistinct, Zu An could still barely understand the meaning of his words.

Zu An's heart stirred. This guy actually retained his full consciousness, similar to the Eastern Yi girl outside. "What kind of deal?"

Seeing him stop, General Yachang reached up and wiped his forehead, as if wiping away sweat—though in his current form, he wouldn't sweat anymore. "I know you have a way to harm me, so there's no need to continue fighting. I can take you to the trial grounds left by the Shang King."